Manufacturers of photographic processing equipment are continually striving to attain rapid and accurate processing of photographic materials. This equipment should be easily manufactured, reliable and economical. This involves simplifying the design and/or reducing the physical size of various elements in the processor.
In typical prior art processors, a sheet of photosensitive material is passed through a series of open top chambers, each containing a quantity of a processing fluid, by a series of rollers generally centered so that the photosensitive material will pass into and out of each open top chamber. There are a number of disadvantages with respect to processors of this type. First, the lengthy transport path impedes the ability to realize high processing throughput. Exposing of the photosensitive material to atmospheric conditions between the processing chamber is generally not conducive to processing due to the lack of photochemical interaction that takes place during this exposure. Exposure to air can also enhance the breakdown of the processing chemistry. In addition, the photosensitive material is more susceptible to scratching or marring due to the stresses induced as the material remains in substantial contact with multiple sets of rollers required to transverse a serpentine transport path.
Another problem with prior art processors is that each processor is typically designed to be used with a particular type chemistry and/or film. This results in a lack of common parts between processors due to the different requirements required of each processor. Therefore, it is necessary for manufactures and/or distributors to stock a large variety of different parts in order to manufacture and repair various different type processors. Further, designing, redesigning, retrofitting or updating of processors can be quite time consuming and costly. Additionally, due to lack of commonalty, changing production lines from one type processor can require substantial amounts of time and money.
While some attempts have been made to standardize components in certain processors, such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,028; U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,840; U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,997; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,678, these devices are limited in their ability to be interchangeable and modified for different applications.
Applicants have invented an improved processor which is simple in construction, easy to repair and retrofitted, allows for shorter design time and manufacture change over, and which can be easily modified to operate in a variety of configurations and allow interchange ability between various processors such that common subassemblies can be used in a variety of different type processors.